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Published Date: 02 November 2007
Time for West Coast DHB Chair & Vice Chair to be Appointed from Elected Members
Government’s practice of appointing the West Coast DHB chair and vice chair should be changed to making those appointments from elected board members who live here, according to board member-elect David Tranter. An editorial in Wednesday’s Christchurch Press spells out why DHB chairs should be appointed from elected board members, not government’s appointees.
While intending no personal criticism of the two absentee chairs who have held the position over the past 6 years it is obvious that people who do not live here cannot possibly appreciate the unique nature of West Coast society and the equally unique geographical factors which have a huge effect on the health service requirements of this region. Having a local person as chair would be an excellent start to re-building the bridges between health administration and the community – bridges which were so painfully lacking during the recent management agenda to end the Special Medical Areas in Buller and South Westland. When those communities were falsely led to believe that the West Coast had the last SMAs in the country when there are still eight of them elsewhere - and in less isolated districts – it is little wonder that the public have scant faith in the way health services are being administered.
There is another advantage in having the two appointments made from elected members since by doing so the two people would have a mandate from the public who voted them in. When district council mayors are elected, and the elected regional councillors choose their own chairman, there is a distinct anomaly in government having so much control over who runs DHB boards. If the boards are to move beyond the “undemocratic and dysfunctional” description given them by widely respected Christchurch surgeon Philip Bagshaw this injection of democracy would be a small but significant starting point, Mr. Tranter said.
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